980 What Brand ?

If looking for a reference version, it really won't matter which brand you get as long as it is a company that is reliable. But if possible, you should try to opt for the custom designs since they have way better cooler designs.

+1 for EVGA. I'm waiting for the Classified to come out.

Computer0304 said:

If looking for a reference version, it really won't matter which brand you get as long as it is a company that is reliable. But if possible, you should try to opt for the custom designs since they have way better cooler designs.

Good point ,i'm guessing the reference cards will also be louder and generate more heat correct ? its only the looks of it and that GEFORCE GTX led is so cool that made me think about a reference card but if its a bad cooler then its better to go with a non reference.


hm about EVGA,im having some doubts after what they did with the 970(misaligned GPU vs heatpipes)also about some time ago they were accused of taking some codes or whatever that was used in EVGA's software,can't exactly remember....

might go with Strix since there is no dirt on Asus as far as i know.

Computer0304 said:

But if possible, you should try to opt for the custom designs since they have way better cooler designs.

Really? My reference 780 cooler is fantastic, it can keep excellent temperatures with a custom fan profile set and has the added bonus of exhausting the heat out the back of the PC instead of all over my PSU meaning all other temperatures remain lower. The 700 series (and 900 series obviously) are absolutely brilliant, I've yet to see any evidence that aftermarket cooling designs are 'way better'.

The cooling is usually better but the performance for some models are way better. The one difference is that the reference designs blow the hot air out the back of the computer where the custom designs will blow some of the hot air inside the computer. If you have good airflow in the computer, it won't make any difference.

The heat pipes weren't misaligned. They used the design on the 980 but the power of the 970 didn't need the contact the 980 needs, so it was by design, because it was not necessary. As far as what you are talking about is their Precision X software being 'pirated', the software is mostly designed by members in the EVGA forums. Plus, what was said, was that the software was a 'knock off' of the Riva Turner program. The Riva turner statistics program is installed with Precision X. How can it be a knock off, if it clearly uses it under the Riva turner name? The allegations were absolutely not true.

When you are the #1 seller of Nvidia cards, everybody is out for you.

Most, if not many, of the aftermarket cards have to have better coolers as they have higher clocks and higher power designs. To keep the temps the same or similar to the Reference designs, the coolers have to be more efficient. Otherwise, why have them?

@Essenbe and Boozad
That was what I thought but thank you for telling me the truth.

As an example, the reference 780 is clocked at 863 with a boost to 902 with effective memory at 6008

The Classified is clocked on paper at 993 with a boost at 1046 and with the same memory clock, but will actually boost to 1125MHz, at stock. I've overclocked mine to where it would boost to 1333 MHz and had the memory clocked to +990. But, that required a vcore of 1.35V. Now, to keep that cool requires something other than the stock cooler, no different than a CPU overclock requires better than the stock cooler. So, the reference coolers are very good and do the job very well. But, they were built for something different than many of the non reference cards.

Thanks for clearing this up mate,ill be getting EVGA this one:
Amazon.com: EVGA EVGA GTX980 Superclocked 4GB GDDR5 256bit, DVI-I, DP x 3, HDMI, SLI Ready Graphics Card (04G-P4-2982-KR) Graphics Cards 04G-P4-2982-KR: Computers & Accessories
do you think i should wait for the non reference ? the non reference will just have higher clock speeds right ? will the difference be worth it ? noticeable?

wth is this for real ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JalO4oHjhQA

the 970 is the same as both the 780ti and the980? if so i'm getting the 970